Cliffs by the Sea

Posted on November 13, 2019 by Sarah Sullivan

I went to Sunset Cliffs with the Wednesday Painters today. It was a foggy morning and the sea color ranged from lavender to green, depending of the strength of the intermittent sunshine. There was a strong breeze and it felt like we were at sea. I wanted to capture this rolling, dynamic feeling in this plein air sketch.

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Beach Baby

Posted on November 6, 2019 by Sarah Sullivan

I was finishing up a painting this morning at Coronado Beach when I noticed a man with a baby walking towards me. I was charmed by the way they were interacting and the way the man was carrying the child. I was able to get their outlines down before they passed me. Then I did my best to complete the sketch, pretty much using detail from other beachcombers.

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Marigolds on Stripes

Posted on November 5, 2019 by Sarah Sullivan

I brought my marigolds inside and took my time arranging the composition. For color and shape contrast, I put the round orange flowers on a mostly blue striped tablecloth. Then I arranged the wrinkles in the stripes to counter the direction of the leaves. Finally, when I had it all just right, I painted it with gouache and ArtGraf.

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Marigolds

Posted on November 3, 2019 by Sarah Sullivan

Stores in San Diego have been full of marigolds in preparation for celebrating the Day of the Dead. I bought an especially large pot of them and put them on the deck. The yellow and orange are lovely against the browns of the wood and neighboring pots, and I was glad to have a chance to paint them today.

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Little Fisher-person with a Big Stick

Posted on October 30, 2019 by Sarah Sullivan

I saw a small child playing with a stick along the edge of the sea and quickly sketched her. She seemed to waving the stick around the water as though she were fishing, which makes sense because there were many people fishing nearby.

I liked how the child and the upper portion of the sketch turned out, but the lower portion bothered me until today when I wiped it out and redid it.

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Warm Enough for the Beach

Posted on October 28, 2019 by Sarah Sullivan

Although it has been hot in California lately, San Diego has sidestepped the worst of it so far. Even so, it has been really warm and this makes going to the beach very attractive.

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Bird of Paradise at Kanaka Landing

Posted on October 23, 2019 by Sarah Sullivan

The SDWS Plein Air painters met up today at Kanaka Landing in the Liberty Station area of San Diego. We are in the midst of an intensely hot week and I feel that I captured a sense of the desert with this focus on the bird of paradise.

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